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Uprising of Sledge
An original story by DarkLocustSlayer A Rough Childhood Jack wiped his forehead as the scorching sun blistered his skin until it burned. He barely noticed what happened to his skin as he was wrestling a skag on the dirt outside his house near Fyrestone. He clawed it's mouth open and he smelt the foul stench from the ruthless creature's mouth. The skag's sharp teeth tried to bite into Jack's skin. Jack put it's eyes out and took an axe embedded in a plant and cut it's head off. He smiled as the blood seeped out of it's body and he roared,"Skag dead!" His parents never bothered to teach him the proper way to speak, but he didn't care. His mother called him to go back inside because it was getting dark and bandits would creap out of their holes. He trotted into his hut and the smell of skag meat filled his nostrils. His dad walked in with more skag to cook and blood drenched his clothes. He'd been hunting as usual. "How were you today Mike?" Jack's mother asked. "Smelly, gruesome, dangerous, and filled with death. Singh got killed today." Mike replied. Jack watched at his parents as they chatted until they heard a gunshot. Mike pulled out his revolver and Jack's mother readied her repeater. They sneaked outside and an intense battle began. The gunshots reverberated in Jack's ears until it finally stopped and he cautiously walked outside the hut. He saw it. He saw the corpses of his parents and their blood spilled all over the ground. Jack peered at the bullets that peppered the crust of Pandora. He looked at the group of bandits who murdered his his mom and dad with eyes of rage. One of the bandit's cursed and shouted "There's a...." That bandit never got to finish his sentence because Jack grabbed the combat rifle from his hands and fired ten bullets into his head. The other killers were in shock until they realized one by one they were executed by the eight year old boy. Jack went for the leader of the group, but the ammo in the rifle's clip was depleted and all he knew was to fire a gun. Despite that he killed people, Jack felt no remorse. The leader pulled off his mask and grinned. "Why you smile?" yelled Jack. "I'm smiling because of your feistiness." replied the bandit. "I kill you." "Will you now?" asked the bandit. Jack growled. "You not angry that I kill bandits?" "I would've killed them myself if you hadn't. Now I'll make you an offer which is that since you have the making of a bandit, I can help you make a place in Pandora. Will you accept this offer?" The man said. Jack had no home, no friends, and no way of keeping himself alive without help so he accepted the offer and walked off into the night with the stranger. Growing Up Jack fired into the midst of the skags as the butt of his shotgun slammed into his shoulder. "You need to work on your aiming." said Mel. Jack was getting annoyed with Mel even though he was the one who saved him from a lonely life on Pandora years ago. His muscles tensed and used his sight to fire a pellet at a skag's face. Skags piled like a mountain on the ground, for Jack had been slaughtering them all day. The sun went down and stars were appearing. That's when the skags fled. Jack breathed heavily and he smelt the foul stench of skag flesh and the smoke from his gun. His hands had become numb since dawn and yet the heat coming from his weapon still blazed his hands. "Me want kill other things than skag!" complained Jack. "Well maybe if you would improve your skills we could move on!" snarled Mel. Jack silenced his anger. "Look we'll go to your next level of your training tomorrow." sighed Mel. Jack grabbed his shotgun and went to his trainer's side. Jack ad Mel walked to their huts near the cliffs at the Dahl Headland. Other bandits roamed the camp carrying guns and eating meals. The two seperated and Jack went into his hut and laid down on his hammock.His limbs ached and even the twenty pounds of his muscle needed a break. Jack placed his shotgun down under his "bed". That shotgun was the only thing that reminded him of his life with his real parents. That gun belonged to his biological father when he went hunting. Jack acquired it when he visited his home a year after he joined Mel. Seven years. Seven years since his parents died and he went into training. Today was his birthday and he was sixteen now. "Sledge, get your ass over here and get some grub or have no food at all!" shouted a bandit. Sledge was his "bandit name" and has been since he joined the band of bandits. Jack got up and went over to the fire while the bandit that called him handed him half of a fried skag's body. Sledge bit into it and started gnawing on the meat. A mild taste conquerered his mouth and then Mel started saying, "Sledge here and I are going to the training ground so we'll be gone for a couple of days." "Shit, you really are Mad Mel huh?" asked a bandit from a neighboring camp. "Why the hell are you here Krom?" "Just here to say that we're moving to the Rust Commons." "Then why the fuck are you still here?" "You're not coming with us?" "No, we're staying here." The bandit named Krom left the camp and went back to his own after Mel said those words. Everyone left after they ate and went inside their abodes. Jack got up and and left the fire flickering while he too went inside his portable home. He once again laid down on the hammock and thought why he was becoming bandit. He fell asleep with no solution to his question. When Pandora's first light shined, Mel woke up Jack and told him to get ready to move. Jack grabbed his shotgun and his helmet and sluggishly moved outside. Three bandits were fixing up a runner for Jack and Mel to use while they were away. Mel pushed aside the bandits and hopped into the driver's seat. "Get inside." demanded Mel. Jack ran up to the runner and hoisted himself up into the gunner position. With lightning speed Mel started the engine and drove off without hesitation. The wind shifted through Jack's jet black hair. He squinted his eyes and saw the training grounds up ahead. There were bumps and loud noises coming from the runner. Mel drove right through a large puddle and a wave of water splashed over the two. jack seemed annoyed, but Mel was just whooping. He parked near the Catch-A-Ride Station and climbed out of the runner. Legend was that this training ground used to belong to a guy named Lucky, but no one bothered to take it back from Mel's bandits. Though, Lucky was still alive and a prisoner here in the main building, stuck doing nothing. "Well here we are." murmmured Mel. Jack and Mel walked into a garage and went through a side door to the training gallery. "Mad Mel, hell I thought I wouldn't see you again!" yelled a person. "Well isn't it a small world Bone Head." "Yeah." Jack saw Bone Head practicing his magical voodoo again on his fellow bandits. Bone Head chanted a strange incantation and used his knife to slit the throat of his bandit companions. It looked like they were sacrifices in his ritual. Mel led Jack to a shooting range to practice his skills with a gun. They walked into a building and saw other bandits shooting. Jack moved in front of a target. "Now aim down your sight," Mel said. Jack nodded and pulled out his shotgun and fired at a skag body that was hung from the ceiling. "Good." Mel remarked. Jack was handed a combat rifle by Mel and asked how good he was with using a weapon other than his shotgun. Sledge aimed down his sight and shot right into the crimson eyes of the executed skag. Mel grinned at Jack's work. After endless shooting for an hour, perspiration drenched Jack's clothes and helmet. His tan skin was also covered in the salty liquid. He took his helmet off and took a break. Mel seemed okay with halting the training to keep Jack's brain from being fried. Pandora's sun was held high in the sky and the climate was flaming. Jack's eyes stung because his sweat dripped into them. Mel knew that he was getting better at shooting and it was time to move on to the next part of his training. Mel had to teach Jack the ways of the bandits or he'd get chewed up by his colleagues like a piece of gum. "Rule one, don't trust other bandits from other tribes!" Mel exclaimed. 'Rule two, don't kill bandits under you or above you unless necessary," Mel continued. "Rule three, kill using a gun or a melee weapon and rule four, kill people that bother you." Mel stated. "Rule five, steal from people or kill them." "Alright, now that you know how to be a bandit you can almost be on a journey with the rest of us." Jack was somehow excited about this, but was the thought killing and stealing supposed to bring joy to him? Jack didn't care or think about that question after he thought it. Mel left him for a minute to go to where Lucky was trapped and returned with bandit armor. The armor was covered with spikes and was a gray color. It seemed to match Jack's helmet like a lost piece to a puzzle. "Here, a gift from Mad Mel and with the courtesy of Lucky!" Mel laughed. Jack took it put it on and he felt like a real bandit now. "Because you graduated from training you get to keep that crap." said Mel. "Okay." said Jack. "Me steal and kill now!" Slege hollered. An Infamous Reputation "Heard that Krom fucked up Bone Head for putting his men into BH's ritual." said Glen. "Yeah, Bone Head was shot about fifteen times in both legs." remarked another bandit. "I also heard that BH isn't a bandit tribe leader anymore and now he's stuck with some douche named Nine-Toes in the Arid Badlands," laughed Sam. "Well maybe you can join Bone Head if you don't shut the hell up!" hollered Mel. The three bandits became quiet and continued taking guns out of a couple crates stolen from a guy named Marcus Kincaid. Jack joined Mel at his side while he rallied up his bandits. Mel brought them in front of the camp. "Okay we're gonna make a small raid on New Haven and get us some guns, money, and other shit so follow me in your runners!" crowed Mel. Ten dust covered runners were brought out with bandits climbing on them or in them. "Me get into gunner seat." stated Jack. Mel nodded. Jack's muscles were not even strained even though he jumped two feet in the air to get into the runner. Mel occupied the driver's seat and sped off with the rest of the runners behind them. Jack kept his finger on the trigger to fire machine gun turret in case anyone needed to be terminated. This was Jack's first raid and he was twenty years old with a strong body and a lust for blood. His armor clanked against the machine gun and his combat rifle and shotgun were smushed by the back of his seat. "Kill enemies!" cried Jack when he saw two vault hunters running. Mel also noticed them and ordered everyone to fire at them. The vault hunters did the same thing with their repeaters. Jack jammed his finger into the trigger and 30. caliber bullets collided with the surface Pandora and not the vault hunters. All of the other bandits missed too, but the hunters managed to swiftly take out one of the runners. That runner exploded in a rain of shrapenel and car parts. A thin sheet of broken metal peppered Jack's armor, but it took the brunt of the blows. As for one bandit, he was cut up into pieces and fell off a runner he was hanging onto. Jack saw this and he kept firing until one vault hunter purchased a couple bullets to the heart. After that he placed another ammo belt from a small ammunition chest near his feet into the chamber of the turret. "Nice shooting!" shouted Mel. Jack said nothing and only felt the thumps from his turret. The last vault hunter was lucky enough to survive, but he went crazy after the death of his friend and fired wildly into the air. That's an example of what Pandora would do to you if you went there. In a last attempt to neutralize the enemy, Jack flung himself out of his runner, landed on his feet, and took out his knife. The vault hunter accepted the knife challenge and also took out his knife. Mel's bandits stopped firing to let Jack handle the situation. Jack ran up to the men and thrusted with his knife, but the hunter sidestepped thus dodging the attack. The man moved next and diagnolly slashed at Jack. Just in the nick of time before he could get killed, Jack moved backwards, but he managed to get cut near his right lung. The person then pulled out his repeater ending the duel. Too bad for the vault hunter, Jack sprinted up to him before he could fire and snapped his neck with his monster-like strength. Mel and his bandits started whooping and asking how awesome it was to kill his first real enemies. Adrenaline pumped through Jack's veins and made him want more action. "You sure showed them!" yelled Glen. Then he remembered about his wound. Jack's blood slowly poured down his wet skin and Mel saw it and said to tough it out. Well Jack barely even felt pain from it. The sun was still rising and the temperature with it so Jack, Mel, and the bandits soon left after the battle.